First E Bike advice ...

[stephenbeetleman]

Hi Guys,
I've been a member on here quite a while but have been more of a reader than a poster up until now. The website is a great resource to have and it has certainly helped me narrow down what it is i want in an ebike.

What i am looking for is a commuter ebike with a good battery range ie. (35 miles +) road legal, more than likely hub drive with a reasonbly good hill climbing ability. I'm a 29 yr old male 5ft 11 and weigh about 16 stone which should hopefully drop more in the next while!. My budget is 1000-2000. I am thinking that a folder would not suit my needs as although i dont intend to commute to work on it i will want to go on quite long runs on it at a time so it could prove to be tiresome after a while.

I am unfortunate in that i live in Northern Ireland that has no ebike distributors as such at present so its very difficult to get a feel for the different bikes i might be interested in. David1949 on here from Belfast has very kindly offered me a run on his Oxygen Emate so that will definitely i'm sure allow me to see what i should be looking for in a good ebike.


I like the look and spec of the Wisper bikes particularly the 905 sel. Have any of you guys any experience of it or is it still too new for any proper reviews or thoughts to be released on it?

I'm willing to consider other options from other manufacturers too so i look forward to your help and expertise on choosing the right bike.

Regards
Stephen

 

[tillson]

Hi Stephen

You may struggle to achieve 35 miles on a bike with a hub motor without an intermediate recharge, particularly when the battery starts to get a bit older. To achieve that sort of range with a comfortable reserve for when the battery starts to deteriorate, I would suggest looking at crank drive bikes with 18 Ah + battery.

Just out of interest, why do you say that your new bike will probably have a hub motor?

 

[7cfm]

I agree that 35 miles is a tall order, a dual battery arrangement might be capable of it, I know that Ezee do them. What sort of terrain will you be riding over?

 

[banbury frank]

Hi I suggest you look at a conversion kit Buy locally a bike that fits you and is comfortable as 35 miles is a long way

The Ezee Kit is available with 2 battery's so range is no problem Cyclezee Ltd - Home

If you build it yourself the you will know how to maintain it

Kit £750 + Second battery £500 a nice bike around the £500 to £800 Total Around £2,000


Frank

 

[JuicyBike]

Hi Stephen
We have a retailer in Dublin who could let you try one of our bikes.
Merlin with a 16ah battery might be ideal for you, however it would be quite a trek south.

16ah on Merlin should take an average person 50 miles...

 

[Eaglerider]

Freego Eagle with 17amp battery. At the weekend I did 53 miles on low and medium assist and still had 2 lights showing. Even if I use max power all the time with lots of hills, 35 miles is easy. I've had it 7 months now, done about 800 miles and so far nothing has fallen off.

I think the Wisper, Oxygen, Juicy, Kudos and Ezee bikes are all pretty good, but most important is after sales support, and all the above providers have displayed legendary support.

If you fancy off road, I'd buy an E-Motion Xenion 650. Happy shopping.

 

[Kudoscycles]

Stephen,I think either the Kudos King or Kudos Tourer would be ideal for your requirements...if you intended to have some off-road element to your riding then the King would be perfect.
The Kudos King has a fantastic specification for the price(£995.00) including Tektro hydraulic brakes,Shimano Alivio 24 gears and RST front suspension forks. The 10Ah LifePo4 battery is reliably good for 30-35 miles,some customers have reported 40 plus miles-the LifePo4 is a long life battery with inexpensive replacement costs(£208.80)-you should always enquire cost of replacement batteries as this is the major cost of running an e-bike,however the LifePo4 may have 5 years plus life,its annual capacity loss is very low. I am 6Ft and 17 stone and ride the King quite comfortably.The King has been reviewed many times on this forum(please do a search)it is one of our top selling bikes,over 80 bikes sold in less than one year.
The Tourer is available with Nexus 8-speed internal hub or Deore 9-speed Derrallieur gears,priced from £945.00,uses same battery as the King,priced from £965.00. These are intended as touring type bikes with road spec tyres,no off road usage intended. There are many reviews on this forum and the electric bike online magazine did a review comparing both types of gearing.
I agree that for the distances you are intending a small wheeled folder is not ideal.
Personally I don't think you need to spend £2k to get a nice hub drive bike,these modern hub drives do climb hills well provided that you are fit enough to keep a good speed up the hills with the motor working at its optimum speed(8mph).
If you want a more leisurely ride up hills then the BH Emotion Xenion 650(off road) and 700(street use)are lovely Bosch crank drive bikes about £2k.
We have good stocks of all the foregoing you can buy on-line from Kudos direct or from our Irish dealer near Dublin or our Liverpool dealer-full details on our website.
Any other info required please PM me
Dave
KudosCycles

 

[Goryl]

Hi,

I have a 905se 2011 since 3 months.
I can achieve quite a long range without any problem. I already did more than 37 miles with it. First half with motor fully on and second half set to 50% just to make sure. I still had power left when I arrived. I do not have much hills as I ride around London, but the few I see just "disappear" smoothly.

I am a bit more than 12 stones.
The sel is even better than the model I have

I am not a tech but if you have any question on the feel of it, do not hesitate.

Hope that helps.

Goryl

 

[stephenbeetleman]

Hi Guys,

Many thanks for all the replies, i will certainly look through all the options listed before making my decision.

Just out of interest, why do you say that your new bike will probably have a hub motor?

I think i would like more top end speed on the flat which i believe a hub motor could give me over a crank motor and it also would be quieter too which would be a bonus. The area i live has some gradients but nothing extreme so i think it would probably be over kill to get a crank setup unless it definitely was looking like the better all round package than the hub one.

I have to say that although i do want a legal ebike, something that has an off road button would be a bonus but not compulsary. Did i read somewhere though that newer bikes dont have the off road button option given change in regulations... is this true?

I also like the throttle function on some ebikes to get you off to a start from the traffic lights or assist on demand, dont get me wrong though although i would like these things i am more than happy to put the effort in on the hills and hopefully lower the level of assistance over time as i get fitter.

As for the 35 mile range i could be flexible on that but i would like an ebike bike with a good bit of reserve power for the longer bike rides i might go on. My thinking on it is that the battery will last me longer if i do typical runs of 15-20 miles and recharge on a battery that is designed to do say 40 miles on a charge as i am only toppping up to full each time instead of deep discharging. Maybe i am wrong on this?

Frank, I was thinking of sourcing a bike and fitting a kit to it but would i not have the worry then about spacings inbetween forks for suitability of kits on the market and what kind of weight of non ebike should i be looking for as a suitable project? I wouldn't want to get a non ebike that would be working out really heavy due to the bike being too heavy to start off with.

Bob,
Thanks for your offer of the test ride on one of the Dublin Juicy Bikes. I will take a look at the range and if i am interested in any of them i will give you a shout.

Now its homework time, i'm going to look into everything listed as an option. Thank you everyone, you are a very helpful bunch on here!

Regards
Stephen






I

 

[stephenbeetleman]

I agree that 35 miles is a tall order, a dual battery arrangement might be capable of it, I know that Ezee do them. What sort of terrain will you be riding over?

Hi the terrain i mainly will be on wil be roads, no rough trails as such.

Thanks
Stephen

 

[banbury frank]

Hi you want throttle only also off road button Ezee Ezee all day long

John at Ezee

will supply all the fitting kit he is supplying Half the forum with Toque arms


Frank

 

[Cyclezee]

Hi I suggest you look at a conversion kit Buy locally a bike that fits you and is comfortable as 35 miles is a long way

The Ezee Kit is available with 2 battery's so range is no problem Cyclezee Ltd - Home

If you build it yourself the you will know how to maintain it

Kit £750 + Second battery £500 a nice bike around the £500 to £800 Total Around £2,000


Frank

Thanks for the recommendation Frank
I should clarify that the kits come with a 37v 10Ah eZee LiPo battery as standard.
Other eZee battery options are available, 38.5v 8.5Ah LiFePO4 for £325, 37v 10Ah LiPo for £325 and 37v 14Ah LiPo for £400.
These can be in lieu of the standard battery with the kit price adjusted accordingly, or in addition for a dual battery setup.

 

[jasono]

Hi there, I owned a Wisper 905se with the 14ah battery for a good while and it was more than capable of covering over 50 miles on a single charge.
I should add that I 'pedal moderately' as they say in the blurb!

 

[banbury frank]

Hi Are you going to use the bike to travel to work ever day if so how far is it

Frank

 

[Wisper Bikes]

Thanks Jasono, it's always great to get a third party recommendation! And of course our new super high quality 592Wh battery will get you even further!

All the best

David

 

[stephenbeetleman]

Hi Frank,
I will mainly be using the bike for leisure cycling, my place of work has changed now to 30 miles away so although technically it would be possible in the right circumstances it wouldnt be something i would be looking to test out.

I have narrowed my search down a bit .. i think.

Although a custom build using a bike spec i like and adding a kit to it would be a good idea, i wouldn't be the most technically minded person in the world so i could probably envisage nuts and bolts everywhere in the garage with the bike as an unfinished project so i have went off the idea.

Of the bikes i have studied further i quite like the Kudos King and the Wisper 905 sel. I note that the Wisper has the newer Dapu motor ... is it worth the extra cost though over the Suzhou Bafang in the King? What are the benefits?

Just when i thought i had it narrowed down to 2 choices i went a walk into town earlier to clear my head and low and behold i ended up test riding a Giant Escape Hybrid 1 from one of the only ebike distributors in Northern Ireland. It just happened to pass the shop on a late nite opening and I didn't even know they were so close to me before this.

I have to say although the Giant didnt have a throttle or the front shocks i did quite like the feel and ride of the bike. The bike seemed to be well kitted out too although i can find very little online from customer reviews etc. Have any of you guys experience of this bike? The dealer stated that the battery is 36 volts and good for 40 miles but i cannot find its ah rating online or anything relating to the hub motors spec or wattage.The bike price was 1600 so it was just shy of the wisper in price although quite a bit dearer than the Kudos.

I have to say that the concept of having the local dealer for support and after sales service does appeal instead of doing things by online or post etc ...decisions ...

Apologies if i am torturing any of you guys on here but i figured if there was anyone that could help decipher this stuff its you!

Regards
Stephen

 

[Cyclezee]

Hi Stephen,

If you send me an email, I can email a copy of our eZee conversion kit installation guide so that you can see what is involved. This may help you decide whether to go down the kit route.

Regards,

I have narrowed my search down a bit .. i think.

Although a custom build using a bike spec i like and adding a kit to it would be a good idea, i wouldn't be the most technically minded person in the world so i could probably envisage nuts and bolts everywhere in the garage with the bike as an unfinished project so i have went off the idea.
Stephen

 

[Wisper Bikes]

Hi Stephen, thanks for considering the Wisper, I appreciate you looking!

I don't want to bore you with masses of information as I am sure you have read all the blurb on all the bikes already. But to answer your direct question, the Dapu is considerably better than the Bafang motor for several reasons apart from the fact it is better built. The most significant point is the power, indeed due to the massive torque produced we have to use a "soft start" in the controller program to stop the front wheel spinning on take of when using full throttle. We have a huge 15% gradient test ramp at the factory on which all our bikes are now tested. One of the tests we do is to start the bike 1m away from the bottom of the ramp and on throttle only run the bike up the ramp until it stops, this puts the electrical circuits under massive stress which normally shows up any weaknesses which we then rectify before the bike is packed. The Bafang motored bikes climb about 2/3 of the hill before they stop. The Dapu powered bikes always go to the top of the hill so we need to apply the brakes to achieve the same effect. Not very scientific I know, but it proves to us manufacturers claims as to the difference in touque between the two motor types.

All the best

David

 

[Cyclezee]

Interesting, eZee also have test ramps with 2 varying gradients where every bike is tested both ways. Can't go into more detail.

I tried it myself a couple of times and the bikes just blitzed it in either direction, serious torque

 

[funkylyn]

Big ramp but.......LOVE the dog....my favourite breed.....

Lynda

PS....whats this...... "cant go in to more detail " .........yr starting to sound a bit like an MI5 agent ROFLOL